


Flash Family Matters

by TheShaddowedSnow



Series: Earths 53 through 105 [4]
Category: DCU, The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-06 02:55:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19053799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShaddowedSnow/pseuds/TheShaddowedSnow
Summary: The Flash family wasn't perfect, but Aspen loved them anyway, even through their ups and downs, they're a family





	1. Chapter 1

“Donny! Dawn!” Leonard called out to their six-year-olds as he entered their home. “I have someone for you to meet!” the two six-year-old speedsters zipped over, eyes wide as Barry joined them with a smile. “This is your new brother, Aspen.”

“He’s tiny!” Dawn marveled.

“He’s just a baby,” Barry explained and kissed Leonard softly.

“I’m glad he’s a boy,” Don decided. “I already have a sister.”

“Daddy! Donny is being mean!”

“But it’s true!” Aspen whined as they woke him up with their arguing.

“You two!” Barry said firmly and they quieted down with apologies. Leonard chuckled and started soothing Aspen back to sleep.

-

“Len! Len, why didn’t you tell me your son has ice powers?” Lisa hissed over the phone.

“What do you mean my son has ice powers?” Leonard gaped. Barry looked over from where he was talking to fellow League members, shocked. “I thought that was-”

“Yeah same but apparently not. One moment...” Her voice got a bit further away. “Aspen! I told you! No freezing your brother!” Her voice got closer to the phone. “I gotta go, you could have warned me!”

“I didn't know! He’s never shown any hint of having powers before!”

“Jesus… Get home when you can okay? Dawn no!” She hung up. Leonard sighed and turned to Barry. 

“Run me home?”

“On it.”

They arrived to a bit of a mess. The twins were now, presumably, free of the ice and sliding all over the place in the living room. Their ash-brown haired son, the one responsible for the ice, was sitting on the couch and pouting.

“I put him in timeout for icing the floor, no ice skating for him, thank God you’re here,” Lisa sighed in relief. 

“Aspen did all of this?” Leonard asked.

“Well, at least he knows how to chill out?” Barry did his best to joke.

“Not the time, Barry. Jesus this is…” Lisa rubbed her temples.

“We’ll figure it out, like everything else in our lives,” Barry smiled warmly.

-

“Watch it, Freckle Freak!” Someone harshly pushed past Aspen on his way out from school. 

“Sorry sorry…” Aspen mumbled, keeping his yellow-brown eyes downcast as he walked down the path from his school to the parking lot. The thirteen-year-old was not the most popular in his school, with his a bit unusual eye color, freckles, and overall more ‘geeky’ interest, but he managed.

“Yo bro!” Dawn waved and he looked up. He hadn’t expected his sister or… Anyone to pick him up really, since he normally rode the bus.

“Sis? What are you doing here?” Aspen went over to her motorcycle.

“I don’t have any classes today, so I figured I’d pick you up.”

“Yo Fre-Aspen, my man, who’s the hottie?” someone came over and Aspen tensed as said person wrapped an arm around him.

“Let me go,” Aspen grumbled. He as subtly as possible made the offending arm frost over. This had its desired effect, the other male letting go immediately.

“I’m his sister, Dawn,” she introduced with a  smile.

“Sister? You’re related to a total-”

“Come on sis let’s go!” Aspen said quickly as he got the spare helmet she kept in the satchels on. They drove off once he was safely sitting behind her.

Dawn looked furious when they got home. Aspen tense,d ready for a fight.

“Who was that asshole hitting on a chick six years older than him? And why was he acting suspiciously buddy buddy with you? He's not one of your friends.”

“Well… Uh… You know how I’ve been complaining about my freckles…? Well… He calls me Freckle Freak. His name is Walter.”

“Oh is he?” Dawn asked, eyes sparking. “What’s his last name?”

“Williams, I think? That’s what the principal calls him anyway.” Dawn hummed and ruffled his hair.

“You won’t have to worry about him anymore, don’t you worry.”

-

All Aspen felt was a deep, numbing cold as he stared down at his brother’s grave. A year, a year with his son… Aspen took a deep, shuddering breath as his breath became visible and the grass under his feet began to frost over.

“I’ll make sure Thaddeus can’t hurt you ever again…” the now-nineteen-year-old promised. There was no response though, there never would be again. The ash-brown haired male turned and walked away from the grave, a familiar blue parka firmly on his body, even if he was never affected by cold temperatures or even felt them.

When he saw the adult Bart, all that he felt was that cold numbness.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” he demanded. “Why didn’t you tell us how he died!”

“I couldn't! I changed my future remember?” Bart yelled back. “How was I supposed to know he’d freaking die on my birthday just like in my original timeline huh?”

“Boys!” Dawn hissed. “This is not the time or place!”

“Let’s get home Bart,” Jaime murmured to his boyfriend. The two had recently moved in together. Bart nodded, and Aspen crossed his arms, glaring as he watched him go.

“Aspe-”

“Let’s just go.” Aspen trudged off, fist clenched. His parents and sister glanced at each other worriedly as they followed him. They lost someone that day, a brother, son, twin… Aspen glanced at Meloni as they passed her with her now-two-year-old son. Meloni lost a husband, Bart? A father.

-

“This should theoretically bring you and Bart to the past,” Aspen said as he got the machine ready. “My powers should keep it cold enough that it’ll stabilize on your trip.”

“Thank you for this,” Meloni hugged him. “I can’t risk Thaddeus getting to us and Bart… Bart deserves to grow up in a time where he can know half of his family…”

“It’s been hard on them, you should have heard how they gave my girlfriend the shovel talk,” Aspen joked weakly. “Take care of him okay?”

“I will,” Meloni nodded. She smiled as her physically fifteen-year-old son hugged his uncle.

“I’ll see you later uncle Aspen! Does this mean I'll be older than you?”

“You’ll be adult Bart one day yes,” Aspen laughed and ruffled his hair. “Remember, no one can know you’re really four-years-old okay?”

“Got it!” Bart beamed. Aspen breathed deeply as the two got into the machine, focusing on keeping it cool. In a flash, though, they were gone.

“Wasn’t expecting to see you so soon,” Aspen joked as not a second later, Bart, in his full Flash suit, came into the room.

“What can I say? Time’s not really something I adhere too,” the brunet joked back. “So they’re in the past now?”

“Yeah… Something tells me Meloni doesn’t make the trip though?” At least, another version of Meloni wasn’t in the future.

“Who knows?” Bart shrugged. “I come from an apocalyptic future, I don’t know what happens to this Bart… Kinda.”

“Everyone’s been having duel memories that you’ve been in contact with I assume?”

“I’m going to assume so, I already have dual memories.” Aspen nodded and turned back to the computers. “Why this? Why drop out of college? Make this lab?” Bart asked curiously.

“College wasn’t for me,” Aspen shrugged. “I may love science and math and art, but I love bartending, owning my own business this lab is just a bonus to that really.” He looked to the speedster and smiled. “I know that look, you’re disappointed aren’t you?”

“I guess… I just… You could do anything with your knowledge, hell I know Bruce wanted to hire you for his metahuman research team for the JLA.” Bruce Wayne may be retired from crime fighting due to health reasons, but he still funded and helped run the JLA. Aspen just chuckled and shook his head.

“You wouldn't understand… Not really. Science, despite my mind for it, isn’t my passion, what I want to dedicate my life to. I’m happy where I am, doing what I’m doing. I’m good with staying out of this as much as I can, especially when my girlfriend is a mobster and my family is, well, my family. I love all of you but I’m good with using my powers to frost glasses and win ice cream eating contest.” Bart smiled sadly and nodded.

“Still, you have to admit, you’d be a great Captain Cold… I know you have your dad’s old parka and goggles in that temperature sensitive locker of yours.”

“For emergencies,” Aspen sighed. “And stop going through my things!” still, he smiled even as Bart ran off. They weren't as close as they used to be before Don was killed but… they were getting there, in their own way.

They were slowly becoming family again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why did I add a much shorter second chapter? Mostly, because I could

“She’s perfect honey,” Aspen, now twenty-five, smiled down at his tired wife and their new baby girl.

“I have to agree,” Matilda smield tiredly, cuddling their new baby girl close. “We need a name…” Aspen nodded, kissing the top of his wife’s head. The birth had been long and hard, and they had both been worried due to her infernal heritage, but it was well worth it.

“Mm…”

“How about Aurella?” Matilda murmured. Aspen smiled warmly but nodded.

“Aurella it is, honey.”

-

“She’s so cute!” Dawn cooed lovingly. Aspen smiled and nodded, holding his daughter carefully. It was two weeks after Matilda had left the hospital with their daughter and they were currently visiting Aspen’s parents. Dawn was there too, Dawn being Dawn and somehow knowing these things.

“She’s already got tufts of hair too,” Matilda mused. “The hospital was worried, since she was born early and is albiino, but she’s healthy and happy and I’m so glad.” Dawn nodded, and Aspen gently handed his daughter over to his sister.

“She’s adorable, son,” Leonard came over and Aspen smiled.

“Yeah, I love her already. The doctors were worried because of her uveal coloboma and albinism, but considering it, specifically, doesn’t seem to affect her eyesight, and she’s a courter devil, Matilda and I aren’t too concerned.”  The albinism certainly did, but many people lived normal lives with weakened vision. Leonard nodded and smiled.

“Something tells me we’re all going to spoil her,” Barry chuckled as he came over.

“Woudln’t surprise me,” Aspen mused. “Her uncle has already promised her to get her whatever she wanted. Man, the look Helena gave him…”

“I remember that,” Matilda laughed as she came over, smiling. “Would you two like to hold your granddaughter?”

-

“Dad! How did you handle me having ice powers?” Aspen called Leonard out of the blue one day. The former supervillain laughed and shook his head.

“So she inherited her powers, eh?” he hummed. He glanced over at Barry, who was reading on the couch. “Barry, our granddaughter has ice powers.”

“Six years old was about the time Aspen’s powers manifested as well,” Barry mused as Leonard put Aspen on speaker and came over. “Ella will be extremely sensitive to temperatures. It’ll get easier as she gets older, but you know that even you’re still sensitive to hot. Giver her cold baths and showers and make sure she drinks lots of ice cold water.  She can't fully control her gifts, so make sure before you lecture her that it was intentional or not.”

“Thank you,” Aspen said, relieved. “I didn’t know what to do and it’s just crazy and I…”

“Pen, Pen breath,” Leonard soothed. “It’s going to be okay.”

“I know, sorry,” Aspen took a breath. “I just… I never thought she’d get my powers.”

“To be fair, we don’t know where your powers came from,” Barry pointed out. “Leonard only had powers temporarily.”

“True, and you have us to help you, I like to think you and your sister turned out just fine,” Leonard hummed.

“You’re right, thanks,” Aspen sighed in relief.

They were a family, after all.


End file.
